Citing the anniversary of the historic March from Selma, Sen. Andrea Stewart-Cousins introduced four bills she hopes will fight voter intimidation.
"It is difficult to believe that 42 years after Selma, in one of the most progressive states in the country, minorities and others still face discrimination and intimidation tactics when they attempt to vote," the Yonkers Democrat said at a news conference in Albany.
She highlighted news reports of polling places in minority communities in her district where voters were challenged and forced to use paper ballots, creating long lines and confusion. At a different site, the lever for Stewart-Cousins had been glued down, she said.
In another ward, Hispanic voters complained they were told Stewart-Cousins wasn’t on the ballot.
Melissa Mansfield
Stewart-Cousins said these reports read "like a dispatch from a far-away third world country."
Her proposed legislation would create the misdemeanor crime of voter suppression; increase penalties for violations of the election laws, and make push polling illegal. The technique is a campaign tactic where the caller acts as though they are part of an unbiased survey, but is in fact part of a campaign.
Stewart-Cousins lost to Sen. Nicholas Spano in 2004 by 18 votes, and voter registration challenges filed days before the 2006 election prompted poll watchers to be on the lookout for charges of intimidation. Stewart-Cousins won by over 2,000 votes.
Assemb. George Latimer, a Westchester Democrat, is expected to introduce similar legislation in the Assembly.